The Seward Rotary Club’s annual “Grocery Grab” Fund raiser is now written in the history books as a success, with a donation of $3000 to the Seward County Courthouse Gather Place/Park centered on the new William Henry Seward stature. The event consisted on members of the Seward Rotary Club selling chances/opportunities to win a two minute shopping spree for groceries at the local, Seward Pac and Save Grocery Store.
Tickets were sold for $10 each or 3/$25 and the funds were collected, with a guaranteed match by Rotary International for up to $1500! The Rotary International grant was approved and enough funds were generated after expenses to match the entire $1500, thus raising the $3000 for the project!
The preliminary drawing for the eight finalists was held at the Seward Bandshell on July 4, 2018, with eight area individuals named as finalist in the contest. ! Rotarian’s involved with the preliminary drawing on July 4 were Russ Sommerfeld, Rotary President Todd LaVelle and Clark Kolterman. The eight names were drawn from special box by the July 4 Rotary Royalty-Miss Independence, Mr. Firecracker and their Runner-up’s.
The final drawing and grocery grab experience was held on Saturday, July 7 at 1:00 pm at Pac and Save, with the seven of the eight finalists winning a $25 consolation gift card and the winner given two minutes to grab all the groceries they can for their cart-collecting only two of any product and only groceries.
Finalists included Andrew Alley-Seward, Suzie Luebbe-Seward, Renae Endicott-Seward, Barb Joy-Seward, Monica Sommerfeld-Seward, Joe Ponec-Seward, Lydia Dominy-Seward and Becky Suhr, Seward. Andrew Alley’s name was drawn and since he was vacationing in Colorado, his sister Aliscia Alley volunteered to collect the groceries for Andrew! In two minutes Aliscia Alley collected a total of $500.88 worth of groceries for her grabbing efforts!
The local members of the Rotary Club were dresses in black and white stripes and outfitted with whistles, to serve as referees for the contest/grab. The local Rotary members involved in the final grab included Russ Sommerfeld, Rick Endicott, Todd LaVelle, Annette Wallman, Jon and Bonnie Kruse, Alan Baldwin, and Clark Kolterman.
Project chairmen for the contest were Rick Endicott and Clark Kolterman, assisted by the entire Seward Rotary Membership. Rotarians Jon and Bonnie Kruse served as the Rotary International Grant C0-Chairmen.